1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to reviewing translations and in particular to reviewing translations of comments associated with data processing system instructions. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to isolating comment portions of a data processing system instruction data structure and preparing them into a single data structure with translations of the same comments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing system instruction sets have become one of the most portable commodities of the twenty-first century. As data processing systems have proliferated throughout the world, companies and individuals who produce instruction sets for data processing systems have attempted to export their products to service a transnational market. Moreover, as the ability of persons in different countries to collaborate on the development of data processing system instruction sets has grown, the ability to bridge language barriers in the production of data processing system instruction sets has taken on increasing importance. Fortunately, the application programming and machine languages in which data processing system instruction sets are written are not tied to any national language as deeply as they are tied to the universal languages of mathematics and Boolean logic. It is not an infrequent occurrence for a programmer, whose native language is English, to be able to comprehend lines of code written by a programmer whose native language is French.
In spite of the universality of computer programming languages, the same can not be said of the comment lines inserted into the code to aid in understanding. As programs grow in complexity, remark statements, also called REM statements, and other items of comment text are frequently inserted into the code to aid in understand its function. When the code is sent to a colleague or user who speaks and reads a language other than that spoken and read by the original author, the comment text items must be translated to the receivers language, or they lose all value. Translations of these comment text items must then be reviewed for accuracy. The current method of reviewing translations requires that the reviewer deal with two separate files, one containing the comment text items in their original language, and one containing translations of the comment text items in the language of the intended recipient. The reviewer must separately print them, separately display them on separate screens, or otherwise switch from viewing one version of a comment in one file to viewing its translation in a separate file. What is needed is a manner of reviewing translations wherein a comment text item is displayed and stored with its translation, rather than being displayed and stored with other comments that are in the same language.